When choosing a location for store, the most basic condition that must be followed is that stores must be located within commercial zones.  Either you lease space in an existing commercial zone or you apply for a lengthy re-zoning process.  In choosing a location for a specific type of store, hundreds of factors, local and macro, could be considered such as population density, zoning, proximity to roads and transit, rent and even parking availibility.

• Commercial zoning - Is the zone suitable for placing a store?
• Proximity to medium and high density residental zones - we want our store within easy walking distance of apartment and condominium buildings.  People are not willing to carry bags of goods very far.
• Income - I want to focus on medium and low income areas.  The reason for this is that those people are more likely to shop around for price versus quality than people who shop at high class, expensive stores.
• Population density - Is the area dense enough? Is the area urban, sub-urban or rural?
• Distance to major roads - We want the store located within 250 metres of a major road.
• Proximity to Skytrain - At the present time neither of us own a car, and we would like to be able to take the skytrain to the location, for we live close enough to the Lougheed Skytrain Station when the Millenium line finally begins operating.  This is not a requirement, but would be nice nevertheless.
• Wal-Mart Influences - Wal-Mart: American Mega Store, Putting small business OUT of business since 1962.  Wal-Mart is well established as a discount retailer, and since that is essentially what our store is going to be, we do not want our store to be anywhere near a Wal-Mart. I will discuss this more in detail later.

Lets test it: Onto the critical analysis!